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SONA Mobile VideoPlayer… First Thoughts

So, I downloaded the CanWest MediaWorks’ VideoPlayer for BlackBerry powered by SONA Mobile yesterday and have had a chance to play around with with it a bit. I know that it is currently in beta, however, my first thought is that VideoPlayer is quite horrible compared to what you get on Windows Mobile and Palm devices.

My first issue is with the quality of the video playback. It is quite grainy and difficult to see. Now, I am only running VideoPlayer on a BlackBerry 7130e and video quality may be better on the more powerful BlackBerry 8700, however, it is pretty darn bad on the 7130e. The sound quality is OK, however, I didn’t see a way to adjust the volume during playback.
Another big issue with CanWest MediaWorks’ VideoPlayer doesn’t stream content. This in itself isn’t all that bad, however, the limited memory on compatible BlackBerry devices will severely limit the amount of data that can be stored in your playlist.

I know this is the first multimedia player for the BlackBerry and that it is still in beta, however, RIM and it’s partners are going to have to “bring it” if they are going to start offering multimedia features on the BlackBerry that you have been able to get on other PDAs and smartphones for years.

The volume can be adjusted by holding the “alt” key while using the thumbwheel, I left feedback with the question and they responded within 5 minutes! That is a good sign. However I agree with the idea the downloadable content is going to suck. It took me more than 10 minutes to download the 90 second News clip. 🙁 I’m excited though.

What you need to do is go into your Options>Advanced Options>TCP.
Your APN should be currently blank, type in wap.voicestream.com. Leave the Username and Password Blank. It worked for me, trust me in frustrated me too. Good Luck, hope that helped. Also has anyone had a problem downloading the Sports clip, and also I can’t seem to get rid of the clips I stopped. I’m not sure if they are taking up space or not. Thanks in advance for any feedback.